1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to document processing, and to compact, desktop document processors for capturing data and images from checks and other financial and payment-related documents. The invention further relates to document processors designed for processing documents at a teller window.
2. Background Art
Historically, banks processed large volumes of paper checks in centralized locations, either a central bank or a clearing house. Document processing machines in such locations were large, processing up to 2000 documents per minute. These machines were supported by dedicated, trained operators.
However, centralized processing costs banks typically three days in clearing a document. The “Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act” or the “Check 21 Act” was enacted by Congress to facilitate check truncation by authorizing substitute checks, to foster innovation in the check collection system without mandating receipt of checks in electronic form, and to improve the overall efficiency of the Nation's payments system. The Check 21 legislation has driven the demand for decentralized check imagers and sorters in financial institutions. Check 21 gives equal legal validity to electronic data obtained from documents, and has made it possible for banks to distribute document processing to speed the clearing process. Check 21 has made it advantageous for banks to convert paper checks to electronic data as early as possible.
In the recent past, banks have partially converted paper check information to electronic data. In some cases this partial information was used internally. In other cases two banks would agree on standards for electronic data transfer. In either case, the paper check was still the only legal document for the transaction. Check 21 has standardized these agreements across the banking industry, and given the electronic data legal merit, if the electronic data meet the requirements set forth in Check 21.
Accordingly, Check 21 has led to a rapid expansion of check-processing solutions based upon interchange of electronic images rather than paper checks, and with this there has been a flood of smaller, cheaper check-processing devices which all have the aim of capturing check images ever-more-early in the payment transaction. This process, known as truncation, aims to remove the physical paper check from the process of payment clearing as quickly as possible—ideally, at the point of presentment (cashier station, merchant counter, etc.). Because it is advantageous for banks to convert paper checks to Check 21 valid electronic data as early as possible, compact, desktop document processors have been developed. Some of these payment system devices are designed for use on a counter top, or at a teller window.
As these processing solutions have become smaller and cheaper, the process of endorsement has become more and more problematic. Everyone associated with a check-clearing transaction wants to place an endorsement on the rear of the check—typically, an alphanumeric imprint which records when, where, and by whom the check was accepted—and they want this endorsement to be placed on the check early enough that it is captured into check images which form part of the truncation process. But the means for applying such an endorsement which is selectable and programmable have become (proportionally) more and more costly relative to the total cost of the check processing machine, to the point where the endorsement means may increase the cost of the machine above what the market can bear. The relative size of conventional endorsement means has also become more and more problematic as check-processing machines become ever-smaller.
The conventional approach to endorsing checks for at least the last 30 years has been inkjet printing. This process has been very apt for endorsing because of its high speed and relatively low cost, and the lack of any practical alternative. However, as check-processing solutions become smaller and cheaper, and as speed becomes less important, inkjet printing becomes less and less attractive. For example, an inkjet printer may well be capable of operating at equivalent paper speeds of 100 inches-per-second or more—but this capacity is mostly wasted when applied in a machine which is only required to operate at equivalent paper speeds of 15 inches-per-second.
A further disincentive to inkjet printing in smaller, slower and cheaper machines is the prevalent business model by which inkjet printing means are marketed. Since the technology of inkjet printing is so complex and the barriers to development so high, inkjet printers tend to be based around proprietary and patent-protected cartridge-based designs, in which as much of the complex technology as possible is embedded. This allows the makers to charge very high prices for replacement cartridges, and leads to a classic razor-blade type business approach, in which the printer mechanism is very cheap, but the replacement cartridges required to make it function are very costly. This places a very high cost-of-ownership on an inkjet endorsing solution in a small, cheap and slow check-processing machine, since a replacement inkjet cartridge may well cost more than the entire machine.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an approach to providing a low-cost programmable endorsement on checks without the use of inkjet printing means.